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Following India's historic victory in the Test series, the stage is set for an extremely competitive ODI series against a battered and bruised Australian team. Instead of going for a full overhaul, Australia has retained a few players from the Test team while recalling many young players.
As far as India is concerned, MS Dhoni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Yuzvendra Chahal are among others who have made their way into the ODI squad. India would love to carry forward the winning momentum from the grueling Test series to the shorter format of the game.
As of 10th Jan 2019, India is ranked 2 while Australia is trailing way behind at the number 6. Kohli has all the resources required to deliver another knockout punch in the series. This Australia-India ODI series has all the elements to make it a blockbuster series, which could prove to be a fitting end to India's historic tour of Australia 2018-19.
With this thought, here we take a look at the 5 key individual battles that will decide the ODI series.
#5 Aaron Finch vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Throughout the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2018-2019, Australia has struggled to get a good opening stand. Aaron Finch was poor in the Test series with scores of 0, 11, 50, 25, 8, and 3. Apart from the standalone 112-run opening stand in the 1st innings of the 2nd test, Finch's performance has been below par.
However, he is an altogether different animal to handle in ODIs. Finch likes the limited-overs format has scored a lot of runs in 2018. The battle between Finch and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first 10 overs will be exciting to watch.
Finch knows it better than anybody else as he went fishing outside off stump to a Bhuvi's outswinger at the T20 in Melbourne in 2018. If Bhuvneshwar Kumar fails to get him early in the game, Finch can hurt India with the bat.
#2 Virat Kohli vs Nathan Lyon
With a reputation of playing both spin and pace exceedingly well, Virat Kohli has somehow fallen prey to Nathon Lyon's off-spinning deliveries on quite a few times in his career. Lyon has earned himself a special feat of dismissing Kohli a record number of seven times, which is the most by any bowler in Tests.
With Lyon in the ODI squad, the battle between him and Kohli will be a great one to watch. Unlike in the Test series, Kohli might on stay back and play quietly. He will try to dominate the off-spinner right from the word go.
Australian team management knows the importance of Kohli's wicket and that's why Lyon is all the more crucial for them. What's reassuring for India is that Kohli is known to quickly learn from his mistakes.
#3 MS Dhoni vs Peter Siddle
The 2011 World-cup winning captain MS Dhoni returns to the Indian side for the ODI series against Australia as a wicket-keeping batsman. Despite passing the baton of captaincy to Virat Kohli, Dhoni still engages in plenty of strategic talks with Kohli in between overs to cook up wicket-taking ploys.
Being one of the fastest hands behind stumps at the international level and still an excellent finisher down the batting order, Dhoni's presence in the team will bolster India's batting strength. Unfortunately, Dhoni has not been able to deliver as well as he would have liked to in recent few innings.
With a fast-bowling veteran Peter Siddle joining the Australian side, it will be interesting to see how he plans to stop Dhoni in the ODI series as Siddle is expected to do plenty of bowling in the death overs.
#4 Glenn Maxwell vs Yuzvendra Chahal
Glenn Maxwell is back. It is always hard to think of Australian cricket in the short formats without the nifty and witty Glenn Maxwell. He has carved a niche for himself by resorting to unorthodox cricketing shots successfully.
Apparently, these high-risk reverse sweeps, switch hits, and similar audacious shots are also the reason for many of his dismissals. But Maxwell's has a good batting strike rate and average to justify his place in the ODI and T20 team.
It is not a secret that leg spinners are Maxwell's weakness and this fact has been exploited many times in the last few IPL seasons. India will be more than happy to throw the ball to Chahal when Glenn Maxwell takes guard and Maxwell will not even hesitate once to take him on. A great contest to watch out for.
#5 Rohit Sharma vs Billy Stanlake
Rohit Sharma joins the Indian ODI squad after missing the 4th Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2018-19.
Australia's thinktank understands the potential damage Rohit Sharma can cause if he stays at the crease for long. The contest between him and Stanlake will be a great one to watch. Standing at 6 feet 8 inches tall, Stanlake's express pace and exceptional height make it tough for batsmen to negotiate the awkward bounce. He has evolved into a wicket-taking opening bowler for Australia in the past few months.
By every means, Stanlake will exploit Rohit's vulnerability at the beginning of his innings with pace and bounce. Rohit Sharma is one of the very few players in the Indian batting lineup good at playing the pull shot and he won't be intimidated by Stanlake's aggression.
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